Anon, day 1

Nekron is a bastard! He dares to polute our white Christmas suggar with his ugly , stinking ashes! We must teach him once and forever! Run, our brave dears, run!
(hurling the oxen whip in the air ...)

TS

FB, I need some time to review the map and do some test runs. Will send out the first turn on Saturday.

Take the time that you need, after all you are the Timelord!

Did the resent turn reach you, Timelord? - Let's try to get into going!

Nekron - Day 1

And so, yet another duel in this soon-to-be-beautiful Creek begins. This time, I have more forces at my disposal but I will have to concentrate on one flank. Orders are given and the Unholy March begins.

Turn sent.

Sorry for the delay FB. Completely forgot abt this one.
Good luck!! And I hope I fare better than last time.

Considering your experience, I have no doubt about it.

Anon, day 2

Looking around for more timber to chop for our hungry oven.

TS

[This message has been edited by Final Bolt (edited 01-07-2005 @ 07:16 AM).]

Nekron - Day 2

The Goblin town was convinced to join us today and our troops are now arrayed to push forward with all impetus.

Turn sent.

Anon, day 3

Finally conquered Newrock, which was overdue.

TS

Nekron - Day 3

The Elven town still seems to be independent - is Anon adopting a different strategy?. We have some nice units to recruit but unfortunately, we don't have the gold and the scouts sent to recruit were killed by a quartet of birds.

Turn sent

Anon, day 4

He he he .. that was a good idea of the map creator to put some birds into the mountains! - We are preparing our positions for the expected onslaught of the evil horde.

TS

Nekron - Day 4

We can see the domain of Anon, creeping towards us - no doubt from Newrock. Unfortunately for us, Astori is guarded by a shade and some minions. We have to take another day's rest before my dark elven swordsmen catch up - for only they have the power to penetrate the protections of the shade.
...Gold!! We need GOLD!!! So many units that can be recruited and no money. The creator of this world is surely a sadist!!

Turn sent.

Edit: FB, if you are planning to do a revision, I would suggest removing those recruiting structures - especially the two near Astori and the Goblin town (with succubi and pioneer). Previously when playing this map, it always used to be a strategic decision on which side to go and how to put your units together. Now, its no longer like that...you don't even have to fight to get some of those units!!

Plus, there are far too many recruiting structures. Three on each side of the creek is a little too much. Probably remove two of them and replace the units in the third one with a hero and with some guards so that it is not easy to free him.

[This message has been edited by Timelord (edited 01-11-2005 @ 07:39 PM).]

Nekron - Day 5

Anon seems to be adopting a different strategy this time. The Elven town is still independent...no bids are made on Astori as we wait beside the defenders...standing shoulder to shoulder with the trusty dark elves to fight the Purists.

Turn sent.

Anon, day 6

TS

Thank you for the comment. I will ponder about it when I get round to do the next generation.

Nekron - Day 6

Aluindol still stands independent. Where is Anon?.

Turn sent.

Nekron - Day 7

Today we sighted Aluindol and it is still not taken...we worry whether Anon has taken another path to our capital...one underground?.

Chanta is seen waiting at some ruins for her Saint to catch up. We will be delighted to see how the battle goes and hope that Anon wont murder an innocent spectator.

Turn sent.

FB, I had to replay the turn again. First time, I had forgotten to change some .pfs files I was editing (to check some items and event images changes I was making and to verify compatibility with the original resources). I could have had one battle (at Aluindol) but deferred it in the light of this unexpected restart. No other battles were fought or were close to fighting.

Timelord, I don't like the way you are playing your turns. Make sure you are playing in a sound environment when playing ladder games. This is the second time you ask me to tolerate dubious restarts and at least this time you have admittedly gained a benefit from it. Although it is not to the sake of map testing, I like to claim a victory at this stage as to broken house rules. This is a matter of respect before the ladder and its rules.

FB, If you would like, we can cancel this as a WL match...but to give you a victory, that I cannot accept. I have deferred battles in this round and you can send the turn to any mod and I can give the password to verify that I did not.

I do not understand by what you mean by "gained a benefit". By my count, I lost a day in converting Aluindol. My wizard, a succubus, two spiders and an archer were able to take the city comfortably.

I do have a sound environment for playing games. Unfortunately, when I had finished playing almost 4 of my PBEM games only, I came to realise the mistake and had to correct it. I could have continued playing with edited resources but didn't know how it would affect the future.

As I said before, I did not have any battles and the only one I could have, I would have won comfortably. If you are accusing me of cheating (however subtly), I propose that we submit the turn to the Ladder Admin and let him decide for us.

The Ladder rules do not state an automatic victory in the case of restarts. There are lots of reasons why restarts can occur and this was a genuine mistake on my part. As a result of this restart, I did not have any battles since this was a WL game.

Edit: I forgot to mention, but I did have one battle (veteran dark gifted bone horror against 2 lurkers) and it must have slipped my mind for it is so trivial and I was posting after playing nearly 14 games.

[This message has been edited by Timelord (edited 01-15-2005 @ 07:39 PM).]

Perhaps it was a misunderstanding as to what you meant by "deferred". I understood you avoided a battle due to experience drawn from a previous version of the same turn. And this in my view is a sufficient criterion for rule breaking.

Some of your words are confusing. "I do have a sound environment for playing games." Sorry, this cannot be true. If your installation conditions (and perhaps lack of memory) cause you - or to your assumption allow you - to restart turns, you don't have a sound playing environment for WL games. That is fact and simple. Please understand this practice cannot be tolerated. Your opponent is not in the position to discern whether you had some sort of technical restart or find it suitable to replay the turn, mentioning your doubt on your installation.

For a compromise I suggest that we bring this game to a halt until you can declare you have a sound playing environment (and take responsibility for it!). And I don't want to hear about this kind of restart again. Another option is to cancell the game totally, if you should prefer that.

[This message has been edited by Final Bolt (edited 01-16-2005 @ 04:27 AM).]

FB, Firstly the battle at Aluindol went almost perfectly with only my archer taking 3 hp damage. All other units were unharmed. So, there really was not any "advantage" gained from this experience.

I do have a sound environment for playing and have sufficient memory and all that. However, I have been testing with Item Images, Event Images, etc and how to incorporate them in a new map I am making without running a Mod. The idea is to changes .pfs files in a Mod and replace them in an existing vanilla installation.
This time, I forgot to change back to the original ones after testing and before playing. As I said, I realised this only after playing nearly 4 games.

I do have a sound installation and accept responsibility for that. Hence, I proposed a withdrawal of this game as a WL match (on account of the restart). However, to give it as a victory was something I could not do since I didn't feel there was sufficient cause for it.

I am game to continue this game however way you want to. So, you decide and tell me how you want to go on from here.

TL, I need your word that I will not be confronted with this kind of restart any more. I'ld rather accept your turns running on this editor mod or whatever than seeing your restarts! - Provided the mod does not change game rules of course.

It might also be a good idea to consider whether your mod files influence gameplay at all. I have heard some people say that the game prevents different gamerule mods running in one PBEM game. I'm not sure about this and it might be worth a clearification. Perhaps you even don't need to do your re-installations of files for playing.

FB, you have my word that there won't be any more restarts...for any reason!! If there is one, you don't even have to ask me, you can go and register a win.

The mod I am making basically adds more Items and Event Images to the existing files - to add flavor to maps. It does not even touch any gameplay aspects and I would have continued playing with it if I had fully tested it. It works in SP, I know but didn't know whether it would affect PBEM games.

To make it work with default rules (without having a mod) what I was doing was replace the .pfs files in the original Resource folder with the modified .pfs files from the User/Resource/ folder. I usually change it after testing but that one time I forgot.

Quote:

Thanks! I'm not going that far, actually!

As for what I can scratch together for my understanding of game design, the images file does not have any influence on gameplay or turns, but are only client-side display matter. So I suggest you don't worry about this file unless it starts making real troubles.

Anon, day 8

TS

Nekron - Day 8

Aluindol falls to the Dark Forces today and we sight some other forces of Anon - an elite barbarian with an Archon avenger.

Some hobbits are also seen but they will not pose a threat for now.

Meanwhile, our forces continue to grow and we would like to know where Anon's main army is.

Turn sent.

Anon, day 9

TS

Nekron - Day 9

First blood goes to Anon...soon, we will prevail, however!.

Turn sent.

FB, did you receive the turn?.

Yes. I'll play shortly!

Anon, day 10

A holy horse and his master, a Halfling agent, broke loose from foliage and raided a patroling little spider near Aluindol, which was too weak to even give a screem. - In the North a watchtower was gained.

TS

Nekron - Day 10.

Small skirmishes...where is Anon's main army?.

Anon, day 11

In the North the fierceful army of Necron is approaching, reluctantly. - Meanwhile we finished off another few of his skirmish soldiers. The city of Astori was taken by surprise and hopefully the productions of Nekron disturbed. Unluckily one of our agents lost his life and so the other had to leave with work unfinished.

TS

Nekron - Day 11

Astori was producing nothing, dear Anon. All my money is going into recruiting...as you can see.
We let that mischievous rogue continue his playing for now as we pursue bigger objectives!!

In the south, the Avenger-led barbarian is really bold, coming into my realm like that. Tomorrow, we will start the push north...as an example of things to follow, a greedy unicorn was put to death.

Turn sent

Anon, day 12

Ryltha approaching!! Ryltha approaching!!

TS

Nekron -

While we advance, a nagging thought persists in the back of my head - where are Anon's forces? It smells like a trap - yet fools are we, for we willingly wander into it!!

Turn sent

Anon, day 13

Day 13 of the quest; will it be our doomsday? - The desperate exclamations of yesterday have called together several rural defenders into Newrock, the Halfling city. They are now decided to face the evil bread for the last drop of their blood.

At Astori the dour minor struggling continues. Our poor Druid was ambushed badly although he thought he was save in the bushes. But the nearby Rogue has taken grim revenge by killing a Bladedancer and the last of Nekron's strange black buzzers, one after the other. Then he vanished into foliage again ...

TS

Nekron -

The miserable wretch of a rogue managed to kill two of my strategic units in a single night!! He will suffer for it, but unfortunately, my scouting in the forests is greatly hampered now.

Newrock is too heavily defended for an all-out assault...so we bypass it and move forward. Ymbria is also heading north - and still no sign of Anon's heroes. Are they all underground?.

Turn sent.

Big bump!
FB, did you receive the turn?

Right you are to bump, Timelord! I am sorry about the delay; I had some difficult days to master but have reason to hope it becomes better by this weekend. Please excuse!

Anon, day 14

Our extremely efficient Halfling agent has ridiculed Nekron once more by swiftly removing another soldier. Now he is throning down from a watchtower near Astori and laughs at the archers there. Where is the next enemy to challenge?

TS

Nekron -

That impudent rogue is now dead!!

Turn sent.

In FC, a bladedancer gets only 4 hits on the wall compared to the usual 8 he would get in TC.

Anon, day 15

We praise our humble and silent hero, Bruno the Halfling agent, who harvested so ample on Nekron's soldiers before he saw death. Still wounded, he even drew almost another three enemies into the abyss along with him! And his sacifice was not in vain, as next Chanta bent round the curve an had easy play to capture Astoria - finally! It makes good revenue now!

TS

>> In FC, a bladedancer gets only 4 hits on the wall compared to the usual 8 he would get in TC.

That is a good idea as in FC everybody seems to be able to hit the door in first round (compared to only two in TC).

[This message has been edited by Final Bolt (edited 03-02-2005 @ 03:56 AM).]

Nekron -

One more windmill razed.
What is this?. Anon stands poorly defended in his capital.

Turn sent